Waje pens inspirational message to women

By Bisola Bello

To celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child, singer, Waje, on Sunday took to Instagram to write about the challenges faced by women.

Waje, who is a member of Bono’s One Campaign, recounted her experience about having a child at a young age. She also talked about the need to re-educate modern women so that they do not see each other as competitors.

In the lengthy message, the artiste expressed her concern about the future of the girl child and how she worries about the world she is building for her daughter and her friends.

Born Iruobe Atiuaje, was delivered of a daughter, Ogochukwu Emerald, on March 28, 1999.

Today, the 11th of October, is the International Day of the Girl Child and I really want to celebrate my childhood and thank God for how blessed I am to have the mother that trained me. I want to celebrate my daughter… The best thing that has ever happened to me and the most important person in my life! When I was still pregnant with my daughter, I had very tough decisions to make; would I have to quit the university to raise my child? Would I be able to live my lifelong dream of being a musician? Would I be able to raise my daughter single handedly? How would I make ends meet? I was one of the lucky ones, the ones with a support system of mothers , of parents pushing their daughters to pursue an education, to continue to dream, to work towards their dream and to continually inspire, motivate and push other young women to excel. I look around me and I worry about the future of women and girls. I worry about the world I am building for my daughter and her friends. I worry about how our legislation affects girls. I see inequality everywhere and I wonder how these young girls who we are celebrating today will cope if we sit and do nothing about their future. Does every single woman have to fight her way through and with everything to remain honourable and respected in her field? But nothing bothers me more than the inaction by women in power and authority. Too often women fail to empower each other. it will also be our fault that our girls are not sitting on the table and contributing to decisions that ultimately affect them. There is so much work to do to re-educate the modern day woman to remind her that we are not each other’s adversaries but that there is strength in sisterhood. To teach the generations that come after about those that paved the way for us. Now it is time to open doors for our daughters and sisters and to embrace our weaknesses together and turn them into strengths.

A photo posted by Waje iruobe (@officialwaje) on Oct 11, 2015 at 5:16am PDT